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A Post-Apocalyptic Post Personal Computer Age

Well, this is it. We have entered a new era. Actually I’ve been here about a year now but I am finally ready to share my experiences. What is this new era, you ask? I like to call it the “Post apocalyptic, post personal computing age (PAPPCA). Why the Post Apolcalyptic title? Earlier this month the land mass formerly known as Japan suffered a huge earthquake and devastating tsunami. Several nuclear reactors melted down, spewing radioactive neutron beams across the ravaged countryside. Maybe I’m a bit premature with the Post-Apocalyptic part, but I’m always being accused of being late and I would like to change that in this new age. What about the Post Personal Computer, you ask? I am sitting in my secondary chair in my secondary office, otherwise known as the bathroom, setting up a blog on a first generation iPad. While it may not be as “magical” as the marketing folks at Apple would have you believe, it has changed the way I use a computer. Just 10 short years ago who would have thought that we would have hand held communicators that would give us the entire worlds knowledge in an instant? Or one that would allow us to shoot and edit HD video and instantly share it with nearly anyone in the world? Or, one that could provide instantaneous access to our entire photograph collection, and play all of our music? I am sure someone was thinking about these thing, otherwise we wouldn’t have them today. It is damn near magical. When I think about it, compared to when I was a young boy this is all very Jetsons like, minus the space car. I have an idea that I have no idea how to make it happen. I’ve had this idea for about 20 years, and we really are getting near the day when this is not only possible but practical too. Imagine if you will a wall, a wall inside your house. Heck, lets make it every wall and countertops too. You wake up, you wonder what the weather is like outside. (You can’t just look out the window, because windows have had to be shuttered up ever since that Japanese nuclear meltdown and its neutron beam radiation went haywire.) You gesture with your hands, and tiny embedded cameras and sensors sense the gesture and display on the entire width of your wall in full HD beauty, the sunrise. Exactly as it looks outside your wall. There might even be additional information displayed as you gesture for it. The temperature, humidity, wind, UV and other radiation levels. You call for your wife and there she appears on a portion of the wall display in full 3d HD and you talk to each other as if she was right there, but she is in the kitchen downstairs already pouring herself a cup of coffee. You could make an 3d HD call to your parents or to your children, or even your boss or clients. Access any computer program whether its local based or in the cloud. access your email, manipulate data, share files with friends and coworkers, anything you can do now on a computer and more. Exciting times are ahead of us. The iPhone, the iPad and similar devices are huge advancements in the way we interact with computers, I’m not sure exactly what the next ten years will bring but you can rest assured that there are people who are already thinking about it.